SOUNDS AROUND TOWN: Nashville singer Josh Rouse pays his first visit to Club Passim

Wednesday

May 9, 2018 at 2:14 PMMay 9, 2018 at 2:14 PM

By Ed Symkus, Correspondent

Longtime fans of singer-songwriter Josh Rouse agree that one of the coolest things about listening to his records and going to his live shows is that you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get. Sometimes he’s solo, others he’s with a band. Sometimes he’ll be doing his folk-pop tunes, others there will be an ’80s vibe. He’s even been known to forego English for a song or two in Spanish.

For his first appearance at Club Passim, set for May 12, he’s planning a mix of songs, some taken from his newest album “Love in the Modern Age,” others from earlier releases. He’ll be singing and playing guitar (probably just acoustic, but he’s been known to plug in an electric) and will be joined by his Nashville pals James Haggerty on bass and Marc Pisapia on drums, and a Spanish guitarist named Chema.

Growing up in the little town of Paxton, Nebraska, Rouse, now 46, probably got interested in performing because it was in his blood. His grandfather played guitar in juke joints throughout the Midwest, and his son – Rouse’s uncle – eventually picked up the instrument, playing it at home and in various bands.

“I remember seeing my uncle with that guitar,” said Rouse by phone from a tour stop in Bristol, England. “That was my door into the music world, and I later got a pawn shop guitar for about $25.”

Living out in rural America, he, like all of his friends, was tuned in to pop music on the radio. But his musical interests started spinning off in different directions.

“I was listening to the Stones and the Beatles,” he said. “But they were doing [the equivalent of] American pop. I really liked the Cure and the Smiths. I always felt that they were more British. They sounded so immediate and mysterious at the same time. That was kind of the first alternative music – it was called college rock in those days – that I was exposed to.”

It wasn’t very long after Rouse started playing in bands that he realized music was something he’d like to do as a career.

“I think it was in my late teens, maybe around 18,” he said. “I kind of noticed that I was always the most passionate guy in the band, maybe you could say most ambitious, as far as wanting to get out and play and get noticed and make records.”

But there were still many more directions to be discovered, such as getting turned on to trumpeter-vocalist Chet Baker and, years later, after moving to Nashville, then relocating to Spain, writing and singing songs in Spanish.

“ ‘Chet Baker Sings’ is still one of my favorite albums,” he said. “That one came to me after I had started making music. One of the first times I heard him was when I was listening to college radio with my friend Kurt Wagner, who sings in the band Lambchop. We were in his little truck when Chet came on. I thought it was a girl, and I thought it sounded real good. I said to Kurt, ‘Who’s THAT?’ He said it was Chet Baker, and maybe a week later, Kurt and his wife gave me a Chet Baker CD. I thought it was the greatest thing, so tasteful and late night.”

His multiple offerings of Spanish lyrics on his 2010 album “El Turista” was a kind of natural evolution for him.

“I spoke Spanish at that point, and my wife is Spanish,” he said. “It wasn’t that difficult, and most of the songs, even if you don’t understand them [in Spanish], have a sense of humor to them. They’re just funny. I didn’t want to do a serious, romantic song in Spanish. I think that would be a little too Julio Iglesias for me. I tried to have fun with that and take more of a Jonathan Richman approach to it.”

Rouse moved back to Nashville last summer, and has since been doing both solo and band gigs. One of his main pleasures these days is seeing and hearing audiences singing along with him at his shows.

“It happens all the time,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll just quit singing when they start singing. I think it’s great. We’re all there to have a good time, and I like to get that feedback from them.”

For the Passim show, Rouse is planning to build things around a set list.

“But right now, the list is varying because we’re just getting started and we’re still trying to work it out,” he said. “And if at some time I get bored with it, we’ll just change it up.”

Josh Rouse will play songs from his new album “Love in the Modern Age” at Club Passim in Cambridge on May 12 at 6 and 9 p.m. Tickets: $30. Info: 617-492-7679.

Upcoming concerts and club dates

May 12:

Roy Sludge will handle vocals and acoustic guitar, along with guitarist Jim Scoppa and upright bass man Johnny Sciascia in a set of country and rockabilly at Atwood’s Tavern in Cambridge. (4 p.m.)

Folk-pop duo the Kennedys are at First Parish Unitarian Church in Watertown. (8 p.m.)

Fiddler-folk singer-Gloucester resident Emerald Rae has a release party for her self-titled CD at the Burren in Somerville. (7:30 p.m.)

May 17:

Pink Martini serves up a program of tunes ranging from classical to jazz to selections from the Great American Song Book over two nights at Berklee Performance Center in Boston. (also 5/18; 8 p.m. both nights)

May 18:

Singer-guitarist Jesse Colin Young will likely perform music from his solo career as well as his Youngbloods days at City Winery in Boston. (8 p.m.)

There will be both duo and quartet presentations of Celtic and Québécois traditional songs by DuoDuo Quartet at Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham. (8 p.m.)

Bluegrass and alt country rock will be played by Say Darling at the Burren in Somerville. The Carleans open. (7 p.m.)